31 May 2008

Adonis rises, Delhi falls. OR Can Yusuf Pathan be the next Andrew Symonds?

Embarassing. McGrath got himself a pasting from Yusuf Pathan celebrating his ODI squad call-up, and Jellybean Adonis Watson played an innings to remember. Delhi started the tournament relying too much on their top order. Towards the end, they relied too much on the lower middle. After the Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhavan failed, there was no question that Dilshan and Karthik would too. Royals are deserving finalists. In fact they're deserving winners. No one deserves to win as much as them. Give them the trophy already.

Can Yusuf Pathan do what Andrew Symonds has done? i.e. Convert a fantastic eye and an uncluttered mind into a Test cricketer capable of scoring big hundreds and getting wickets against good batting sides? I think it is a gamble more than worth taking. Australian cricket persevered with Symonds for a long, long time, and there were times it looked a dodgy investment, but it paid off in the end - Ponting's captaincy contributing in no small measure, aparently.

Ponting forgot he was nearing 10000 runs. That is a lie. I have always hated the way he bats, but 10000 is a lot of runs. I might just consider trying to appreciate his game a little more.

SP,The example of Andrew Symonds is before us. And Yusuf looks like he has a better temperament than Symonds had in his early days. We can wait for that big career-defining ODI knock (like Symonds against Pakistan in the '03 World Cup), and then think about the transition. Also, SP, I don't think anyone can compare to the Fab Four even now in terms of batting in Test cricket. Also, there is a whole lot to be learnt by the younger lot, in batting in the same order as Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and Sehwag.

Ott, quite clearly he is a batting all rounder. It would be unreasonable to expect anything more than the bowling we now get from Sehwag.